Theatre announces 2014-15 season

The shows are running from late September through early May. General admission tickets for preview performances cost $8, the same price charged to students and seniors for any production. Matinees cost $10 and evening performances are $12.

Tickets to “The Box Marked Black,” showing Oct. 24 and 25, cost $15.

Special, season-ticket packages are also available until Oct. 1 for $35. The fee covers admission to “The Box Marked Black,” three drama productions, a dance concert, an opera and the open rehearsal for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” produced in collaboration with the Salem Chamber Orchestra.

For more information, call 503-370-6221 or email thtr-tix@willamette.edu. Tickets are also available at Travel Salem, 181 High Street NE, Salem, OR 97301, 503-581-4325.

Read on to learn more about this year’s lineup:

Top Girls

Sept. 26-Oct.11, 2014

The action swings from the smart Thatcher-era London Women’s Employment Agency to a cottage in rural East Anglia, as it portrays the sacrifices and compromises women make in carving out a place for themselves.

Overlapping dialogue, inventive doubling of characters and the most unusual dinner party you’ll ever see combine to create a truly memorable event.

The Box Marked Black

Oct. 24-25, 2014

“The Box Marked Black” is a tender solo performance piece, tracing the experience of growing up mulatto in the pre-Huxtable era.

With only Jenny Willis from “The Jeffersons” as a guide, our multidisciplinary storyteller creates narrative from the perspective of both sides of her interracial family — embodying multiple characters, childhood memories and fantasy.

Veracity, a dance concert

Nov 14-22, 2014

The concert will include unique student choreography, new faculty creations and collaborations with other artists to produce a body of work that portrays our continuing commitment to integrity.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Nov. 15, 2014

Hear Shakespeare’s comedy of fantasy and fairies in a whole new way. The Salem Chamber Orchestra and the Willamette Department of Theatre team up to perform Mendelssohn’s incidental music and excerpts from Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream". Don’t miss this fresh, brilliant take on a perennial favorite.

Helen

Feb. 20-28, 2015

In this inspired take on Euripides’ tragicomedy, Helen never went to Troy but spent the war fought in her name in an Egyptian hotel room waiting for her husband Menelaus to come find her and take her home.

In her odd exile, Helen receives visits from Io, a mythical figure who was once turned into a cow, and the goddess Athena, who informs her of the devastation that Helen’s empty image has wrought upon the world.

Gianni Schicchi

March 12-15, 2015

In this year’s collaboration with the Department of Music, wealthy aristocrat Buoso Donati has died. His family gathers for the reading of his will, only to discover that he has left his considerable fortune and estate to the local monastery.

They hatch a plan to alter the will and reclaim the prize, but they need Gianni Schicchi’s assistance to pull it off. Will he help the family or help himself?

The Country Wife

April 17-May 2, 2015

“The Country Wife” paints a frank picture of a rakish hero who will go to any length to engage in scandalous liaisons with the wives of his courtly colleagues.

Ribaldry, sparkling wordplay and old fashioned dirty tricks about in this gleefully wicked romp through the inner chambers of 17th century London’s upper crust.